Selfridge: one of America's oldest air bases

Out on the shore of Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township sits Selfridge Air National Guard Base — one of the oldest continuously operating military airfields in the United States. It opened in 1917, just after the country entered World War I, on land a Packard auto executive named Henry Joy had bought for testing airplanes. The Army turned it into a pilot-training field and named it for Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, who in 1908 had become the first person ever to die in an airplane crash, flying with Orville Wright. Over the next century Selfridge trained thousands of pilots (including, during World War II, members of the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen), guarded Detroit with Cold War missiles, and launched patrols over the Great Lakes within hours of the September 11 attacks. In 1971 it passed from the Air Force to the Michigan Air National Guard, and today it’s home to the 127th Wing and its A-10 and KC-135 aircraft. It’s also unusual for hosting units from all five branches of the armed forces. (One note for trivia fans: because Selfridge is a National Guard base rather than an active-duty one, that title — Michigan’s only active-duty military base — belongs to the Army’s tank command over in Warren.)

You can explore the base’s history at the Selfridge Military Air Museum, which has indoor exhibits and an outdoor “Air Park” of more than 30 aircraft (selfridgeairmuseum.org).